Mirza Hosein Khan Sepahsalar

Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh Sepahsalar (Persian: میرزا حسین خان مشیرالدوله سپه سالار) or simply Mirza Hosein Sepahsalar (Persian: میرزا حسین سپه سالار) (1828–1881) was the Grand Vizier (prime minister) of Iran (Persia) during the Qajar dynasty under King Naser al-Din Shah Qajar between 1871 and 1873.

Mirza Hosein Khan Moshir od-Dowleh Sepahsalar
میرزا حسین خان سپه‌سالار
Grand Vizier of Persia (Iran)
In office
12 November 1871 – September 1873
MonarchNaser al-Din Shah
Preceded byMirza Yusuf Ashtiani
Succeeded byMirza Yusuf Ashtiani
Personal details
Born1828
Died1881
Mashhad, Persia
Political partyIndependent

After a successful career in the Iranian foreign service, serving in Tiflis, Hosein Khan was made ambassador to Istanbul during the great Ottoman reform period after 1856. He seems also to have been influenced by at least two reformist thinkers: Fatali Akhundov, whom he got to know well in Tiflis, and Mirza Malkam Khan, whom he met in Istanbul.

On becoming Grand vizier, Hosein Khan persuaded the Shah to grant a concession for railroad construction—the Reuter concession—and other commercial development projects to Baron de Reuter. Opposition from bureaucratic factions and clerical leaders, however, forced the Shah to dismiss his Grand Vizier and cancel the concession.

See also

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References

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  • The Cambridge History of Iran 7; Peter Avery; Cambridge University Press, 1991
  • The History of Iran (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations); Elton L. Daniel; 2000